thank you. ♪ >> at the john jay calley school of music. i am mike schneider, managing editor here at njtv. we welcome you to the first debate between the two major party candidates for the u.s. senate. u.s. senator bob menendez, democratic incumbent and republican challenger, joe kyrillos. question candidates tonight, the editorial page editor of "the record and herald news." brigid callahan harrison, professor of political science at state university. herb jackson, washington correspondent for the record hurt and my colligan chief clinical correspondent for njtv. we have questions reported earlier by the news director of wbgo-fm, doug doyle, which is seen throughout the broadcast. here's the rules throughout the debate. each candidate will have 90 seconds for an opening and closing statement in a show of 60 seconds to answer questions from our panel. then move onto the next question. there is a timing light here to keep us on schedule. it is my job to try and force that. the audience has promised once again to make my job a bit easier and